What the GOP Must Do to Win the Next Election

The Republicans in south Texas are analyzing and assessing their recent loss to understand what happened. On this, two points are very clear; one was voter apathy, the other was lack of money for local campaigns and candidates.

The long and nasty presidential primary may have hurt voter turn-out. Also, the Romney campaign seemed to take Texas for granted by assuming that conservatives would vote for Romney.

However, one sure problem was the lack of “ground game” by active and engaged precinct chairs to get the vote out. There were few trained, active, and funded precinct chairs to bring GOP voters to the polls. Unfortunately, most GOP or conservative leaders are not community organizers, and don’t know how to rally people to a cause. It seems conservatives depend more on talk radio and Fox TV News spread their message.
In mean time, the liberal Democrats had large signs in some communities that boldly stated “Stop the Republican war on women”, or “health care”, or “education”. Sadly, the GOP had nothing to counter those signs.

Then there were the political games that were played, particularly in Democrat Hispanic strongholds. GOP candidates had their signs ripped down, routinely. When flyers were passed out door-to-door, Democratic operatives followed behind and gathered the flyers. In Bexar County, several “abnormalities” in voter registration were found, including the use of a cemetery as an address for several voters registered as Democrats.

The lack of financial support for local GOP candidates is particularly baffling. For example, many business interests associated with the Eagle Ford Shale did not support GOP candidates who would be more beneficial to their business interest than the Democrats. Obama has made it clear that he is not a friend of oil or fracking. If energy businesses think the EPA was tough before, things are about to get worse. If they think “conservative” Democrats will help them, they should understand that any Democrat that wants to get ahead politically will have to pull the Obama line.

The GOP needs to develop an effective ground game. Precinct chairs must know how to inform, educate, and rally people to vote. They must be seen and be heard in their communities. The precinct chairs can also be taught how to reach out and recruit Hispanics into the party.

In order to help the precinct chairs, the local GOP must have money. To get funds, the party must have a vision and goals, and show results. Money is needed to train for precinct chairs, and to develop a communications system which can help keep them informed and engaged. Funding should also be used to challenge the illegal activities that liberals engage in, and which are so common.

If the GOP can make these changes, the 2012 election will be a temporary set-back in south Texas and not the end world. With the proper game plan and funding, future success will follow.